on time, stasis, revolution

Revolutionary time finally marks our escape from prison time into a full mode of living, unforeseeable, exposed, open to desire. This mode of living is at all times constituent of our new, revolutionary time. Prison time, however, will always return as soon as that revolutionary time is closed down, as soon as rebels allow the revolt to congeal, as soon as a constituted power is erected. We do not break out of prison once and then remain free; our alternative existence must be a continuous project in perpetual motion. Revolutionary time is a never-ending means without an end. Any end would destroy it.

- Michael Hardt - "Prison time," Yale French Studies Vol. 91, 1997, pg 78